Samsung set to unveil S4?

And why that may not be good news for HTC and their new phone, the HTC One

And why that may not be good news for HTC and their new phone, the HTC One.

Yesterday saw the release of the HTC One, a seemingly a concerted effort by the Taiwanese manufacturer to further slim their portfolio. The new flagship phone has a 4.7-inch screen, quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor clocked at 1.7GHz, 2GB RAM, and an 8-megapixel camera. It will be available in flavours of 32- and 64-GB of internal storage. Perhaps the only flaws, prima facie, are the omission of a microSD slot and removable battery. While not critical to winning kudos, these are two darling features among Android’s fan base, and were sorely missed in the One X, HTC’s flagship phone last year. The big news isn’t the impressive spec list. The big news for us, here in the rumour mill, is that most of the information was leaked prior to release. We even saw a hands-on video before the event. Whether intentional or not, it’s the leaks that have sparked the most conversations on tech sites.

Samsung’s no stranger to leaks. They’re also no strangers to misleading leaks. The launch of the Galaxy S3 saw a plethora of leaks leading up to the actual launch, none of which revealed the actual device. Depending on where you stand, the actual device was a pleasant surprise or a bit of a let down. Whichever the case, it surprised us.

It’s this uncanny tight-lipped-ness from the Korean manufacturer that has us questioning most leaks about the phone, including the latest: The successor to one of the most successful phones in the world will be revealed on March 14. A couple of sources have revealed the date, including Sammobile, who seem to have a finger on the pulse of Samsung’s mobile division. The event is rumoured to be scheduled in New York, which would make it Samsung’s first flagship reveal outside Europe.

To recap, the S4 spec list is currently populated with a 4.99-inch Super AMOLED display, with full HD resolution, an octa-core Exynos 5 chipset, octa-core GPU, 2GB RAM, and 13-megapixel rear and 2-megapixel front cameras. While some ‘leaked’ images of the device show no trademark home button, recent rumours have squashed that information. We’d be surprised if Samsung decided against the physical home button, or the two capacitive buttons, they’re known for.

If there’s one thing we’re rooting for, it’s less chrome, literally and figuratively—the latter referring to TouchWiz’s unfortunate gaudiness. We’re fans of the function, but not the form. With analysts pegging production for the upcoming flagship at 100 million, Samsung will be hoping to top the success of the S3. But if we do see the phone launched in a month, HTC will have more to worry about than just irked, would-be customers demanding a microSD slot and removable battery.